


about books and covers

by talonyth



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Established Relationship, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, and my bokuto dramatic and moody, i like my akaashi spicy and dangerous, kind of a character study of akaashi, v slight hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-07-12 01:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7079410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talonyth/pseuds/talonyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you do it right, Akaashi Keiji will throw a vase at the wall even if he doesn't seem like it at first glance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	about books and covers

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to my bff nico, as always. thanks for the prompts i will never reveal! 
> 
> i just felt like writing akaashi. that's the whole punchline.

Akaashi has never been an impulsive person. In fact, the first impression he apparently leaves is the following: Rational, quick to take decisions and think things through, cool to the core (he tries not to feel flattered at the latter part). 

He wouldn’t disagree on the rational part. Not necessarily, at least. He does prefer to consider his options and choose the one most likely to succeed rather than rush in head first but for the sole reason of hating to lose too much to bear it. Simple enough. 

And yet, no one seems to acknowledge that tidbit that fuels logical thinking to him in the first place. Even someone such as Bokuto still keeps being surprised at risky plays, at daring challenges, at bold suggestions. (Bokuto is the last one to mind all those, though.)

Sometimes, rarely, hardly ever but it is there, Akaashi would like to be more like Bokuto rather than himself. ...Perhaps more like Konoha than himself. That sounds more reasonable. Konoha does have stupid ideas, occasionally but they aren’t half as dangerous as Bokuto’s or Komi’s, for that matter. Especially latter is surprisingly creative when it comes to ways back to the hospital and the handsome doctor working there. Not often, barely, Akaashi thinks that might be the main reason for Komi’s sudden spark of ideas. 

He likes to watch the others carry out their ridiculous ideas if only to laugh at their faces in hindsight. They still always invite him. He still always enjoys it even if the oh-so-rational part of him tells him that what they are about to do is plain stupid, for a lack of a more elegant word. (Frankly, it suits them just fine. Sarukui wholeheartedly agrees when he isn’t busy giving Komi a leg-up to climb a tree.) 

All there is to his behaviour is simply that it is the way it works best. The most likely way to succeed. Keeping cool when everyone else can’t (namely Bokuto), thinking when everyone else doesn’t (namely Bokuto), making fun of them when everything fails (namely because of Bokuto). The balance they need in their group. Even if they aren’t a team anymore, this is something that hasn’t changed tremendously. It’s about winning and succeeding even in the slightest things. 

Simply because there is nothing in the world Akaashi hates more than losing. For others to deem him hard to read, difficult to decipher, perhaps that had been a choice of his own before. The less transparent he was, the more difficult it would be to attack him and break him. He never thought he would regret a choice like that eventually. 

He isn’t majorly dissatisfied with the way he is. He would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy hearing how unexpectedly dangerous he was from various sources. He couldn’t see much of that by himself, after all. The small gasps at how his favourite colour is red rather than blue, that he prefers eating cotton candy at a festival rather than takoyaki, that he’d like to get a motorcycle license eventually, they all do feel odd. Not bad but hearing how unexpected that would be - why would it? 

“So that’s where you were.” 

Bokuto’s voice is uncharacteristically quiet. ...It makes Akaashi wonder if Bokuto gets upset about that too, not being expected to be serious when it matters and such. That person minds things like these a lot more than he lets on. 

He crouches down next to Akaashi into the sand and fidgets. Buries a finger into the sand and draws circles. Ellipses, really. “You still upset?”

Akaashi doesn’t reply. For once, he doesn’t know how to. Bokuto sounds dejected but not in his Bokuto-kind of way. It is alarming, to say the least. He doesn’t know how to meet Bokuto’s eyes so instead, he pulls his legs closer to his chest and stares at the breeze washing up waves onto the beach. 

“Look, I… I’m sorry. I said a lot of crappy things back there. I… wasn’t thinking at all.” He chuckles but it is void of humour. So unusual. “Well, I never do, right? That’s why it’s important you do. And not in the ‘you think but never feel’ kind of way. I’m sorry I said that, by the way. I know you don’t lack feelings or any of that crap. Honestly. I know better than anyone else.”

He stays quiet for a little longer before he says, “That’s probably why it… hurt twice as bad. I… Sorry. Don’t be mad, alright? I’ll make it up to you, okay?” 

There it is. Slight despair, a mildly frantic pitch of voice, a shift from feeling guilty to being sure whatever bad happened in the world was his fault alone and his burden to carry. How troublesome. How _worrisome_. If only he made more clear he actually enjoyed his company. His and everyone else’s, too. Bokuto wouldn’t have gotten upset, they wouldn’t have fought, Akaashi wouldn’t have smashed that vase. 

“Ah.” He turns to Bokuto, looking at his hands. He let out a sigh in relief. “I thought you might have gotten cut.”

“Hey! I can clean up shards without hurting myself, I’m not that much of an idiot!” It’s oddly comforting to hear Bokuto worked up like this. 

“Really?” Akaashi smirks. “The empty box of bandaids in our apartment says otherwise.” 

In a single exasperated move, Bokuto stands up and points at Akaashi. Very pointedly. Akaashi refrains from widening his grin at this not-as-horrible pun. “Infamy! I’m calling Konoha, he will be my lawyer!” 

“Bokuto-san, you can’t sue me for telling the truth.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that when you’re in jail!”

He does call Konoha who tells him the same thing as Akaashi and hangs up on him without further ado and listens to Bokuto complain for another half an hour before he falls to his knees in the most dramatic manner, grabbing sand in his hands and letting it rill through his fingers to make his point clear as he announces he will not tolerate this kind of discredit to his persona as easily. 

Akaashi snickers, almost inaudibly and can’t help but smile when Bokuto interrupts his ramblings to stare at him with mouth agape, dumbfounded at the sight before him. 

“You laughed…”

“I do that, sometimes. Believe it or don’t.” 

“I _know_ that! But you were angry at me! You… you…” Bokuto lowers his head. He’s sulking. Akaashi isn’t sure whether it is his imagination but even his hair looks slightly more deflated in comparison to before. He’s wondered about that a lot in the past too. Could Bokuto’s hair be somehow sentient? ...What a scary thought. “I was sure you wouldn’t smile and laugh at me anymore after what I said.”

“I can’t say I liked what I heard,” Akaashi admits and shuffles closer to Bokuto, “But some things were right. I know I seem like a killjoy sometimes. Even though secretly, I do enjoy your shenanigans.”

Bokuto’s head jolts up. His eyes are glistening. Dangerously. “Then does that mean I can build the---”

“Rejected. Please don’t make me repeat myself. You are not going to build a time machine out of a microwave. And while we are at this topic, please refrain from boiling your eggs in the microwave too.”

“But Akaashi, it’ll be---”

“Yes, the innovation of the century. You are not building a time machine out of our microwave.” 

“Awww.” Bokuto’s head hangs down, a pout on his face. “You don’t know if it won’t work.”

“You don’t know if it will work either. It’s a deuce. Let’s go home.” Akaashi stands up and brushes the sand off his pants. Inevitably, there is probably going to be sand in some more secluded parts too, a pain in the ass. Possibly literally. He smirks. 

Bokuto grumbles but gets up too, fidgeting again. His expression softens when his eyes lock with Akaashi’s. His heart skips a beat at how fond Bokuto looks. He’d say it is unusual but it isn’t, really. “You know, it’s just… a smile suits you so well. It’s kind of a shame you don’t do it more often. That’s why I got so upset earlier. It’s… you know? You know, right?”

Akaashi chuckles. “I do but tell me nonetheless.”

Bokuto groans and grabs his hair as he lowers his head. His ears are all red. “You’re so cruel! So harsh! So fierce!”

“Oh, I like the sound of that. Tell me more, Bokuto-san.” 

Bokuto looks back up again in an instant and grabs Akaashi’s shoulders with urgency. “You are so beautiful when you speak your true feelings! I like the smart and cool you but I also like the emotional you! ...Frankly,” he averts his eyes again, “I might have gotten a little excited at you throwing the vase.” He tilts his head back and Akaashi is left staring at him. “ This disgrace! I am a ferocious monster to desire you in a moment like that!”

Choice a) to reply would be following: Telling Bokuto he doesn’t understand a thing, letting him ramble until he exhausts himself, go back home and clean the shards. The poor vase was victim of a simple demonstration of Akaashi’s anger and pain. It didn’t have to go but at the moment it felt like Bokuto didn’t understand even when Akaashi raised his voice at him. 

Choice b), definitely the riskier one, encompasses more of a playful reply. More of a teasing and daring reply, more of a--- Ah, his heart is racing at the prospect. There is no question about this decision. 

“Is that so, Bokuto-san?” Akaashi purrs with a smile curling his lips deviously. He traces Bokuto’s neck up to his chin with his finger and leans in. “Quite the masochist. So you would like me angry and rough, yes?”

Bokuto freezes. He breathes, shallowly but he does. A gulp. He flinches when Akaashi gets close to his lips with his own but doesn’t pull back. 

“I can arrange that,” Akaashi breathes against Bokuto’s lips, grazing them slightly. “After all, I still have quite a lot of emotions pent up after always choosing the thoughtful path rather than the impulsive one. I will make sure you will never forget about my emotions again, _Bokuto-san_.”

Bokuto holds his breath in. Akaashi can’t help but grin as he licks over Bokuto’s lips and steps back to see hunger in Bokuto’s eyes. He wins this round by a large margin and he’s never felt more satisfied with the way he is after all.

**Author's Note:**

> alright, if you caught the reference to a certain visual novel, i am very proud and very happy. also, there is hardly anything i enjoy more than a very dominant akaashi. his boldness in canon invites me to think of him like this. please tease bokuto-san more, akaashi.


End file.
